WHEN NIGHT COMES TO THE SOUL

"My tears have been my food day and night, because I am asked all the time: Where is their God? When I remember these things crying distressed. For I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with songs of joy and thanksgiving among the multitude keeping festival "(Psalm 42: 3,4).

Hard times. How to face them? What they do with us? What effects they cause to our faith and devotion? Especially when they are extended, as it seems to be the case of the psalmist?

It is difficult to endure suffering, especially one that lasts. Servants of God in the Old Testament and the New, and the Christians throughout history have faced the question of the Psalmist in this text: where is your God? A question which means, among others: because God does nothing? What good is my faith if nothing changes? Who question is not others, but the psalmist himself. Her tears irrigate the land where bloom your questions. Believing does not solve and wavering faith only becomes more distressing your time, because you can not be sure of divine help, which then put your hope? In such moments, the celebration and trust become distant memories. It is not easy when the certainties that in another time proclaim as safe and convincingly the lack of them and no longer feel safe. Many Christians throughout history have felt it. They lived undesirable moments like these. And you, the ever lived?

In time so I cry, sigh, cry and grieve, but all this before God. This is what the Psalmist is doing. He's fighting his fight with God. His lament does not speak to men but to that of the doubter. At such times we do not believe in much, but in fact that we are being heard by God. This is a face of faith that much resembles the lack of it. We should not run away from the pain or anesthesia try it, but face it with the courage of those who know what is being looked at by God. There are pains that only end up were lived. It's not easy to live the dark nights of the soul, but some of us live. But we can be sure: they go and God renews upon us His care. Pray today for the suffering. Pray for yourself.

devotional EORTC